(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
"The opioid epidemic is a national crisis that should not be underestimated." That's a quote from a June 1st New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece by Susan Glod. She's a physician involved with hospice and palliative care and pain management. But the title of the piece reveals another issue related to the current situation. That title is The Other Victims of the Opioid Epidemic. Those other victims being people in desperate need of pain treatment who cannot now get it because of fears related to the prescribing and use of opioids.
To try to help to avoid abuse, new forms of opioids have been created, called abuse-deterrent opioid medications. These can't be crushed or dissolved, thus making them difficult to snort or inject. But "these formulations would have no impact on other opioid-related deaths such as unintentional overdose."
Glod in an audio interview related to her New England Journal piece.
"I think that the downside to all of these formulations is that they have the potential to make needed medication more expensive and less accessible to patients who are having opioid responsive pain and who really do require these medications. What really worries me the most about all of this is that if the medical community, the public and policy makers get too distracted by the promise of a solution to the opioid epidemic in the guise of a reformulation of known opioids, I'm worried that we're going to lose focus on addressing all of the underlying systemic issues that have really led to the epidemic in the first place—such as lack of access to alternative evidence-based means of controlling pain, the lack of mental health and social services to address other components of suffering besides physical pain, and the lack of providers who are trained in managing drug addiction and dependence."
Glod's full article and audio interview are available at the website of the New England Journal of Medicine.
For the Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。
“阿片类药物泛滥是不应被低估的全国性危机。”此话是苏珊·格洛德在6月1日的《新英格兰医学期刊》中发表的观点。她是一名内科医生，从事临终关怀、姑息治疗和疼痛管理等工作。但这篇文章的标题揭示了另一个与现状有关的问题。文章标题是《阿片类药物泛滥的其他受害者》。其他受害者指的是，因为社会对处方和使用阿片类药物感到恐惧，急需这类药物治疗疼痛但却无法得到的人。
为了避免滥用，人们制造出了新型的阿片类药物，名为“遏制滥用型阿片类药物”。这种药物因为不能被压碎或溶解，所以很难吸食或注射。但是，“这些配方对与阿片类药物有关的其他致死因素没有任何影响，比如意外或过量服用。”
在与《新英格兰医学期刊》文章相关的音频采访中，格洛德如此说。
“我认为这些配方的缺点是，它们可能使人们需要的药物价格升高，导致患有阿片类敏感疼痛、急需这些药物的患者更难获得药品。最令我担心的是，如果医学界、公众和政策制定者们被所谓阿片类药物泛滥解决方法的承诺所迷惑，而实际这是伪装成已知阿片类药物的新配方，我担心我们会忽视最初导致阿片类药物泛滥的潜在系统性原因——缺少以证据为基础的控制疼痛的可替代方法，缺乏应对除身体疼痛以外的其它病痛因素的心理健康和社会服务，缺少接受过管理药物上瘾和过度依赖培训的供应商。”
格洛德的完整文章和音频采访可以在《新英格兰医学期刊》官网上查看。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. in need of 有…的需要；有…的必要；
例句：His gross misman-agement left the company desperately in need of restructuring.
他管理上的重大失误使公司陷入亟须重组的境地。
2. such as (用于举例)例如，像，诸如；
例句：They offer tips on topics such as home safety.
他们就家居安全等问题提供建议。
3. in the guise of 扮作；以…为幌子；
例句：A man appear at the castle gate in the guise of a woodcutter.
有个人装扮成樵夫的样子出现在城堡大门口。
4. in the first place 起初；一开始；
例句：She looked at me as though she'd expected this sort of answer and didn't know why she'd asked in the first place.
她看着我，就好像她就知道我会有类似的回答，后悔当初为什么要问我。
